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Harrison, Chrest 2005 Tewaaraton Trophy Winners

The Tewaaraton Award Foundation is pleased to announce the male and female winners of the 2005 Tewaaraton trophy. Kyle Harrison of Johns Hopkins University and Katie Chrest of Duke University were awarded the top national lacrosse honor on the men's and women's side respectively.

This is the third consecutive year that Kyle Harrison has been selected as a finalist for the Tewaaraton Trophy. Harrison led the Blue Jays in assists (17) and points (36) and ranked third in goals. He registered at least one point in 17 straight games dating back to last season and won 26-of-46 (.565) faceoffs and had a team-high 51 ground balls on the year as well. He scored a career-high five goals in Hopkins' 9-8 overtime victory over Navy earlier this season and started all 58 games in his career.

Harrison ranks second all-time in school history in faceoff winning percentage (.607 / 315-of-519) and has career scoring totals of 76 goals and 42 assists for 118 points. He earned First Team All-America honors as a junior and second team status as a sophomore. He also won the 2004 McLaughlin Award as the nation's top midfielder. He is one of just four players in school history to earn this honor.

On the womens side, Junior Katie Chrest received the Trophy. Chrest registered 70 goals and 26 assists in 2005 to lead the Blue Devils in scoring for the third consecutive season. Chrest's production helped guide the Blue Devils to a school record 17 wins, their first ACC Championship, and the program's second trip to the NCAA Tournament final four.

The ACC leader in points and goals per game, Chrest became the first Blue Devil to claim ACC Player of the Year and ACC Tournament MVP honors. The Hampstead, Md., native was also an IWLCA and Inside Lacrosse first team All-America selection. In addition, Chrest was named ACC and Inside Lacrosse Player of the Week on three occasions in 2005.

At the close of her junior campaign she ranked first in shots (380), second in points (214) and third in goals (152) and assists (62). This season, she set a school single-game record with seven goals against Loyola on April 12 and also set new Duke single-season marks with 70 goals and 96 points. As a sophomore, she earned third team All-America honors and was an ACC All-Tournament team pick. In 2003, Chrest became the third BlueDevil to win the conference Rookie of the Year award.

The winners were selected from five male and five female finalists who were all honored at a reception in Washington, DC on Thursday, June 2nd.

Matt Danwoski was robbed, he was more important to Duke than Harrison could ever have hoped to be. Best player in the league hands down. I'm tired of a senior winning it every year. The award is not for four years of work, its for one.

Of the games I saw this year, Brodie Merill was the best player I saw and you could argue he was most valuable to his team.

Mike Powell won it as a sophomore AND as a senior. Completely agree about Brodie Merill.

Danowski - great player. One of the top three. He'll win one of these and a championship.

Merrill is clearly one of the top 3 players.

But Harrison:

Is a great f/o man.
Plays great defense in this era of specialization - and was on the field on defense in the semi and Final as a defensive player - not as an "oh S&*^ there's one of our 'offensive' middies on defense".
Feeds.
Dodges
Shoots.
Is a Leader on the team.

And does all of them at an AA level. He is a game altering performer on offense, defense, clearing and facing off.

I think this is the right pick.

But Harrison isnt the "best" player. If you go look at the seasons stats for the entire division (D-I), he isn't in the top 20 in any of the stats you just mentioned (face offs, goals, assists, or gb's). Guess who is? Danowski, who is 8th in gpg and 7th in apg. This award is going to lose all of its integrity just like the Heisman. It's going to go to the best offensive senior on the best team. He shouldn't have won it.

Anyone who has seen Harrison play in person can attest to the fact that there is no one else like him in the sport of lacrosse, Mike Powell included. It was the right choice, though I would argue Brodie Merrill has more of a claim to it than Danowski. Harrison, quite simply, is the best midfielder over the past five to ten years, including Kyle Rotelli, in my opinion.

Agree about Brodie Merrill. I watched him play for a few years and he is phenomenal. But I think its extremely difficult for a defenseman to win an award like this. Simply because they never have enough stats to back them up. That sucks for d-poles. Maybe if more teams start tracking FTOs (Maryland is the only one to my knowledge that does) it will improve their chances.

Also agree that while Harrisson got the award AND deserved it even if they counted his 4 years of work at Hopkins. It should be an award for a years worth of work, but Harrisson has just been too prominent a leader at Hopkins for voters to just look at his senior year.

Danowski may not be the most valuable member of his own team. You could make strong arguements for Fenton and Zash. Harrison is not only a great lacrosse player (as is Danowski), he is the emotional leader of JHU's team. It's a good choice.

As good as Harrison is, in my book Brodie Merrill was the best player hands down. Offensive players have the advantage in these type of awards due to goal scoring, but I have not seen anyone control & disrupt the flow of a game any better than Broidie Merrill does game in and game out. The man is a groundball machine, an animal in man-on-man defense, and can also score with the long pole. As a D-man/LSM, he is not going to put up the offensive numbers that the other candidates do, but he was the most dominating player that I've seen this year.

In looking at other sports, I could find only one person since 1980, Danny Manning, who accomplished a feat similar to what Harrison did this year...

1. Win a National Championship
2. Be named Player of the Year (Wooden/Heisman)
3. Be the #1 overall pick in the draft
(Perhaps Benson can check my research)

Personally, I'm in the Merrill camp, but certainly Harrison is a fantastic player and without question the best midfielder in the game.

I was all for Harrison, but now second guess myself after the championship game. His no angle shot when they were trying to run the time down, and miss on the open net kind of scared me a bit.

The best players don't always have the best stats on the team, or in the country. I liked watching him play D, and I still can't believe how fast the guy can be. It's really not fair. Most incredible athletes rely on their ability, but even if he didn't have 4.3 speed, he'd still be an incredible player.

Kyle Berggren wrote:I was all for Harrison, but now second guess myself after the championship game. His no angle shot when they were trying to run the time down, and miss on the open net kind of scared me a bit.

I hope you wouldn't negate a season and career's worth of work with one ill-advised shot. If he had hit the open net (which I think would be awfully inviting to any of us) we wouldn't be arguing that point.
I must admit that I haven't watched a lot of D1 lacrosse, after all, the MDIA is much superior! What impressed me is how hard he shot with both hands. I think his first goal was lefty, and then after his next goal, right-handed, the announcers said that was his strong hand. I thought the left looked pretty good!
For those that saw the story on his dad's team at Morgan State, very heartwarming and I havea lot of admiration for what the Ten Bears were able to accomplish. To have his son win the Tewaarton brought the whole story full circle, and I was pleased and proud for both.

It wasn't just that he missed, that happens... (should he have taken the shot?) but after those two things, I was really hoping he wasn't going to fall apart in the last 5 minutes of the NCAA Championship.

Harrison won and deserves it-anyone who watched the Navy, UVA, or Duke reg season games can tell that. BUT, I think he won b/c of getting Hopkins the title. If they went down in the semis and the Hoyas escape Stickgate with a win-I think Brodie could be toting the hardware now. I like Harrison, but he just did not seem to carry the team in the playoffs like he did in the regular season. But hey, it's not like he didn 't have skills to merit the award. Danko will have his time, just has to wait....like Harrison did.